Dear Swans Players past and present, supporters and friends, 

As you all know, the Swans have grown to be part of the regular SE Asian football scene, regularly touring, receiving visiting teams as well as a variety of other off-field activities. Over the years the Swans have regularly held Grand Final events, been involved with charities and other events promoting footy and Australia but first and foremost have provided a social umbrella for a nucleus of Aussies who have lived, visited or somehow been involved with Vietnam. A hallmark of the Club has been that we have been able to attract people of all nationalities regardless of their sporting ability – or preferred sport! 

A few of us – including Scott Stacey who is continually and tirelessly working behind the scenes – have thought that as the club is now National and is growing in terms of numbers, it would be a good idea to work towards forming a more organized club to ensure growth and longevity as well as bringing about a more structured format to spread the workload and have more people actively involved and taking ownership in the events and matches we’re involved in.

The suggested format is to run with a National Committee and then two City Committees: Hanoi and HCMC.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE

The National Committee would be made up of two to three representatives at this point the two key cities, HCMC and Hanoi. The committee would decide the positions of the officers but in general the responsibilities of the National Committee would cover: 

• Organizing touring events (with the assistance of the respective Cities)
• Organizing National Events (that is events which combine both cities such as the Nha Trang match earlier this year)
• National Sponsorships (the Key sponsors for the country such as our current sponsors Linfox, Loscam, Blue Ink Asia, Bobby Brewers, Jim Beam and Big Rooster Footy etc)
•  National Budget (obviously there would be national costs for tours etc which would be funded National Sponsor, jumpers etc. Excess/shortfalls funds for National Budget would be distributed/collected from the cities) to be approved by both City committees
• Jumpers and kit
•  Membership (suggested that membership guidelines and records by National but funds generated to be under the Cities budget) 

CITY COMMITTEE 

Each city should have its own committee, made up how they feel best to take care of the following: 

• Training
• Local events
• Player welfare (apart from tour insurance which is a National thing)
• Local Treasury (funded by memberships, local sponsors for events, any local money raised)
• Hosting of International Touring teams (ie, whichever city hosts the touring team will be responsible for that tour)

I am sure there are a lot of comments and suggestions to add/correct this basic proposed structure and they are all welcome. However, these things can be drawn into loads of discussions so what we suggest is we simply start now and amend as we go. Remember, we have the Grand Final (local event), the tour to Lao and the Asian Champs (National event) coming up and we need to start organizing now.

SO, we suggest the approach is for the Cities to get organized first and to help, we will set a deadline. We believe each city should be able to inform of their respective committees by the end of this month and that each city nominate their three National Committee members by 15^th July 2008.

Interim Organizer of City Committee first meetings: 

• Hanoi: ???
• HCMC: Scott Stacey 

They will send you details of how to get together to organize the meetings very shortly.

The level of footy interest in both Hanoi and Saigon is growing and new faces are stepping up wanting to take responsibility. When we join forces to play as Vietnam, the vibe between the two cities is sensational. All the talk is about us being one combined Vietnam team. By combining Saigon and Hanoi we increase our pool of players so that we can have additional tours such as the trip to Lao next month. We now have a new signature footy jumper with the support of some new sponsors. Previous players and supporters often email before our matches to wish us luck. Our Blog is recording over 1,000 hits a week (in the next two days, we will record our 40,000^th hit). In summary, we have a great story to tell.

The structure above is about strengthening the Club to ensure that our success is not dependent upon just good luck.

Bring it On!

Phil Johns, President, Vietnam Swans